Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor had predicted that he would catch football star Cristiano Ronaldo, in terms of earnings.

What's the story?

On Sunday morning, the world witnessed one of the most anticipated matchups since Floyd Mayweather took on Manny Pacquiao. This time Mayweather was facing off against UFC champion Conor McGregor in a 10-round boxing match. Though Mayweather emerged victorious, financially everyone was a winner.

Before the matchup, Irishman Conor McGregor was ranked 35th in the Forbes rich list for athletes. After the bout, however, he received a grand total of £77 million dollars. Much before this, he had met Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo last year and told him that he would soon leapfrog the latter in the Forbes list. At the time, McGregor was 35th in the Forbes list while Ronaldo was sitting pretty on top.

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Fast-forward to August 27th and McGregor, self-dubbed 'Mystic Mac', smugly realized that his prediction actually came true as he vaulted past the Real Madrid player in the Forbes list. The Irish superstar has had a 21-3 win record with 18 knockouts and 1 submission in MMA.

The heart of the matter

Although Conor overtook the Portuguese forward, he is not the highest paid athlete. Instead, it will be his opponent Floyd 'Money' Mayweather who takes the top spot after earning £233 million. This sum completely dwarfs Conor's and puts the American in the running to be the richest athlete.

The UFC Lightweight champion will be pleased to see his earnings rise even though he had spent barely half an hour in the ring with his American opponent. At the age of 29, he still has the opportunity to earn a lot more.

McGregor had dominated the first 4 rounds of the August 26th match, but as the length of the bout stretched on, his endurance began to wane and that allowed the experienced Mayweather to gain the upper hand.

Before the Mayweather clash, Conor had earned £2.8 million in his last UFC match-up against Eddie Alvarez. In Sunday's match, however, he pocketed £23 million, a fortune when compared to his UFC earning. He had also amassed a total of £30 million in his entire UFC career since bursting onto the scene in 2013.

What's next?

Meanwhile, Mayweather retires gracefully with a 50-0 win streak. Prior to the fight, Floyd's career earnings was an astounding $700 million. With the conclusion of the bout, his all-time earnings will reach $1 billion, a milestone reached by American icons Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan.

Author's take

Although I doubt that Conor is psychic, there is no denying that he will overtake Ron, win or lose. If you do the math, the MMA fighter was always going to come out ahead of the Portuguese star.